Field of the Invention
Privacy concerns regarding mobile device data have recent emerged in national discussions regarding individuals' always-on, internet-connected world. Mobile device users increasingly desire more control over their own user information; information which may be personal in nature, such as location-based information captured by mobile applications and shared with third-parties. Many mobile device users do not know exactly what information is being collected, what information is being shared, and how the information is being used. Location information of mobile devices is conventionally captured directly from the device, for example, from the GPS tracking applications, the mobile device's managed connections to cellular towers, GPS satellite tracking sites, or reverse internet protocol (IP) address look-up services. In each of these inadvertent connections, personal information is being accessed on the users' mobile devices including possibly phone contact information, mobile web browsing history, IP addresses visited, and mobile device identifying numbers, to name just a few. Several recent high profile examples of a mobile application mishandling a mobile device user's personal data have had a negative impact on consumer trust. Advertisers and promoters are utilizing and exploiting ever increasing collections of mobile device user data in an attempt to create location-based advertising for mobile customers.
Apart from the mobile data collection problem, the actual display of mobile advertising has itself become a nuisance to mobile device users. Various mobile device display methodologies are now used to attract the mobile users' attention in this regard, such as banner display advertising and push notification windows (similar to pop up windows on a desktop computing device). In most instances, mobile advertisements are neither relevant to the mobile device user nor are they desired or solicited by the user. As a further complication, the smaller mobile device displays easily become crowded when random asynchronous information is constantly presented to and displayed on the mobile device. Consequently, conventional advertising networks used for mobile ad delivery suffer from at least three shortcomings: 1) they carry a high nuisance factor in delivering useful ads; 2) they compromise the privacy of the mobile device user in exchange for the display of those advertisements; and 3) they potentially create negative user impressions based on these problems.
Description of the Prior Art
Many advertising systems presently rely on tracking a user and collecting the user's mobile device information on a centralized ad server. This information is then sorted and analyzed to deliver targeted advertisements to the user. U.S. Patent Appln. Pub. No. US 2010/0138294 A1, to Bussmann, et al. and published on Jun. 3, 2010 (hereinafter Bussmann, et al.), discloses one such system. In Bussmann, et al., a location-based advertising server is used to collect ad content from advertising publishers associated with a particular geographic region. (Abstract.) The system of Bussmann, et al. then collects bids for placing that content along with requests from mobile devices within the specified geographic area for delivering advertising content. The advertising system of Bussmann, et al. matches device request for ad content associated with the geographic area and delivers ad content based on bid prices offered by the advertisers.
The system of Bussmann, et al. provides the mobile device user with no direct control over the ad content received except as to its geographic proximity to the user. A better functioning system would permit a mobile device user's advertising needs to be directly presented to an ad server which then requests, specific, tailored ads from the advertisers. What is desired, on the part of both the buyer and seller, is a push dynamic in creating a type of “specific channel relationship” between them. This “channel relationship” is solidified when the above-mentioned privacy concerns are addressed. Just as in the purely physical shopping world, the best buying experiences are obtained when highly relevant delivery of ad content and offerings are presented to the user at precisely the moment in time in which the user is most engaged with the shopping, planning and decision-making processes.
U.S. Pat. Appln. Pub. No. US 2011/0295687 A1, to Bilenko, et al. and published on Dec. 1, 2011 (hereinafter Bilenko, et al.) discloses a system in which user profiles are introduced for tailoring delivered ad content. (Abstract.) In Bilenko, et al., the user profile is used as a factor in selecting ads to be forwarded to the user. (Abstract.) However, the system disclosed in Bilenko, et al. allows user profiles and past purchase histories unique to the users to be shared with the ad content providers, thereby violating the privacy concerns that are the subject of the present invention. (Bilenko, et al., p. 4, para. [0023].)
U.S. Pat. Appln. Pub. No. US 2007/0130005 A1, to Jaschke and published on Jun. 7, 2007 (hereinafter Jaschke), is similarly deficient in collecting and using the personal information of the user in the advertising bidding process. Specifically, highly personal data is collected by the advertising server including age, gender, ethnic group, income, etc. (See FIG. 3 and related description.) The consumer information broker of Jaschke then filters the user profile information and correlates this private user data with a target profile created by the advertiser to determine a winning bidder. (Jaschke, p. 4, paras. [0059] and [0067].) While the advertiser never “sees” or receives the user's personal information as part of the ad selection process, that information is used, nonetheless, by the system of Jaschke to initially screen and match mobile users having profiles containing sensitive information with the advertisers' target profiles. Further, while Jaschke discloses that users may opt-out of this targeted profile bidding process, (Jaschke, p. 6, para. [0080]), that information is nonetheless collected and stored on the advertiser's ad server as part of the overall system operation.
Other inventions have managed some aspects of an anonymous profile, but without consideration of mobile users' specific requested content. U.S. Pat. Appln. Pub. No. US 2009/0247193 A1, to Kalavade and published on Oct. 1, 2009, is one such invention. (See Abstract.) The patent application of Kalavade discloses a detailed process for the real-time creation of an anonymous user profile. (Kalavade, FIG. 1 and p. 3, paras. [0067]-[0076].) However, only when the users opt out of personal information sharing is the profile kept confidential. (Kalavade, p. 3, para. [0072]). The data processing of Kalvade, however, all this takes place with respect to user data collected in real-time but without any consideration of the specific ads that the mobile user is interested in receiving, and particularly without any connection to user-specified geographic areas of advertising interest.
Thus it is an object of this invention, and a failure of the prior art to-date, to deliver user-specified advertising content to the mobile device of those users such that the ad content 1) satisfies a user request or specification for the ad; 2) is provided within a geographical area in which the user is interested in shopping, and 3) is provide in a manner that adequately preserves the privacy of the user's mobile device data.